Rebellion Has a Place in Corporate Life

I once worked for a company that had an official policy against a coffee maker of any sort. It went so far as to outlaw water coolers (a policy that was rightly “ignored” by the on-site manager, but the ban on the coffee machine was strictly enforced).

The logic behind this was that employees would be less productive if they had any opportunity to mingle and waste time.

About 75% of the employees there smoked; about that same percentage worked 50+ hours per week.

After about 3 months observing this trend, I pitched a twice-a-day 15-minute exercise program to boost morale, increase productivity, and decrease stress. The idea was laughed at. I was laughed at.

That was the last time I suggested something without actually making it happen it first.

My first act of rebellion was first to bring a large carafe of coffee to work. Then my own coffee pot. Personal coffee makers were not against the rule, and since my desk was in a central location, lots of people stopped by for a quick cup of coffee. I’d say Hi and send ’em on their way. If there was any decrease in productivity, we never saw it.

My second act of rebellion was to reject my chair in favor of an exercise ball (which was promptly “borrowed” by my coworkers). The trend began to spread.

My third act of rebellion was two-fold. First, I joined my co-workers on their smoke breaks to see just how much time it took them to get their fix and return to their desks. Each smoke break, they were taking roughly 5-10 minutes to every hour to smoke, recover, and get back to work.

I started taking short walks around the building whenever my boss or co-workers took a cigarette break. Whenever someone would go for a smoke break, I’d pull another coworker into a walking meeting around the building to figure out a project or whatever tasks needed to be done that day.

Rebellion has a place in corporate life. But, it also has a heavy price if you’re found out as the rebel. I was never discovered (or at least not chastised) and after I’d had my fun, I left that company of my own accord.

Rebels who get caught become martyrs. Even so, sometimes rebels become heroes.

Connect with WTF Marketing

Geek out over social:

And now a word from our happy customers:

Greenpoint Landscaping researched many marketing companies online and found WTF Marketing… we thought they were cool and relevant. We enjoyed working with Nick, he was fun, very responsive, and has great ideas. We like the look of our new website, functionality, and how it tells our message of what our business really is. He also set us up on a blogging plan to help drive traffic to our website.

As a start-up company, I approached Nick to get better understanding of online/social networking tools to use in my marketing. In a couple of hours I had a good understanding, solid ideas – including a secondary market – and some first steps. His report of the meeting was concise, included a solid strategy, and had several ideas to implement. I feel I am on the right track and have an honest expectation of what it will take to achieve some success. I consider Nick a resource that I will continually tap as I move forward.

Nick and the team at WTF Marketing coded and designed a truly awesome website for us. They built a custom WordPress theme from scratch and gave us precisely the look we were after. The mobile version of the site is fully responsive, we’ve received tons of compliments already. I know next to nothing about coding a website. Fortunately, Nick knows all. His knowledge of e-commerce, web design, SEO, and marketing was invaluable. Really fun guy to work with too.

Nick is truly dedicated to helping people learn and take advantage of small business tools, trends, and technologies. His vision for clients is always fresh and innovative. Nick’s commitment to client satisfaction is nothing short of amazing.

Meetup doesn’t make available enough stars to rate Nick’s groups! A big THANK YOU to Nick for your generous sharing of information, interesting conversations, and poignant perspectives! I’m continually impressed with the depth and breadth of Nick’s knowledge. Nick is an avid community builder through providing and facilitating the sharing of information and other resources. His friendly, fun and affable personality, coupled with an inviting sense of humor, have resulted in his having a cadre of friends, colleagues and business relationships, all sharing the same strong sense of community and ethics. Nick charges forward to get the important things done, while, at the same time, is always generating and creating new tasks, perspectives, priorities, and relationships.

I highly recommend Armstrong to those small business owners who are struggling to understand the fast moving world of technology and marketing. As a writer, I hate to use a cliché, but Armstrong is someone who truly thinks outside the box, and this is a tremendously important skill in today’s world.

Nick remains two steps ahead of the game to come up with innovative ideas on how businesses can adapt and keep up with the times and have fun while doing it! Nick leads by example by encouraging individuality and personality mixed with a solid work ethic.

Nick is the secret weapon of marketing. In the space of hour he made this happen: new service created, client profile defined and my business specialty uncovered. Know what this means? I can rule the internet! Thanks to Nick. Seriously, get on his client wait list already. Why are you waiting?

The Fort Collins Brewery and Gravity 1020 hired Nick Armstrong after participating in a seminar Nick was a part of. Nothing was status quo in the seminar, from the chairs being arranged differently to Nick bouncing around the room in his brightly colored tennis shoes, we were educated and entertained all at one time. This energy and creativity is what caused us to hire Nick to redo our websites, embrace new social media tactics and market our up and coming restaurant and brewery. We worked along side Nick for a year and half and would recommend his talent and creativeness to anyone willing to take a look at the “standard” way of doing things a little differently that still achieve lasting results.

There are very few individuals in this day-and-age that commit themselves so passionately into their profession and Nick Armstrong, at WTF Marketing, is one of those individuals. He worked diligently and without complaint on the many changes and demands that I requested during our creation of the website Java Raiz. He made himself available almost 24-7, and never lost focus or sincere interest in helping me complete the project.